Tuesday, November 6, 2007

An Uphill Task

Bored of the usual flat terrain. Try the hills. Jogging uphill builds endurance and strength, and offers much more challenge than the usual routine. Now before you take that run uphill, you need to be well conditioned or you might just be breathless when u reach the peak. If you have been regularly running at least 3 times a week for a few weeks now, you can start to try out a few low hills to get you started.

I have to remind you to get yourself checked by a doctor before doing this exercise and also have a proper meal as you will definitely use up a lot of energy. Ensure a proper warm up and be fully hydrated.

1) Before going for that hill, have a visual check. Ensure that the road is not bumpy or uneven. Singapore has jogging tracks that cover hills, that should be a good place to start. Go for low hills to start yourself up.

2) As you reach the hill, lengthen your pace and move your body forward. You do not need to jog faster, just lengthen your stride.

3) Do not look down. You need to see other users of that path that might come down the hill. Another reason for this is psychological if you see the peak, let it be a motivation to reach it.

4) Control your breathing. You must not be breathless, if you are slow down your pace .

5) Do not over exert. The idea here is for you to be able to keep jogging even after you reach the hill.

Once you reach the peak, you will start to feel the lactic acid in your legs acting up. It is just your body natural reaction to the strenuous uphill jog. But let not this be stopping your from continuing, if you are still breathing normally and not out of breathe, keep jogging normally, recover and go for the same hill or another. This builds endurance, once you master it, running on a flat terrain will be easy for you.